Leveraging Paid Traffic for Fast Growth

Paid traffic can lead to a fast growth of a business. If you rely on organic traffic, then you are going to build your traffic gradually adding a few hundred or a few thousand visitors a month. However, with paid traffic, you can actually go from zero traffic to thousands of visitors a day in a matter of few days. Paid traffic is a different specie from free traffic and requires a totally different mindset for success.

Conversion Ration, EPC and Upsells

When talking about paid traffic, EPC or earnings per click is the most important statistic. EPC tells about how much money you make per visitor that lands on your website, including recurring purchases and upsells. You get EPC by dividing the life customer value by the conversion rate from paid traffic.

Your EPC comes to $2, if the average worth of a customer is $100 and you have a conversion rate of $2. So you will be operating at break even if you buy a click by paying $2 per click. Everything you earn above $2 is profit. And this number is the most important one that you should be observing in case of paid traffic.

Of course, you can split test different strategies even before knowing this number, but it will be better if you calculate it quickly before buying aggressive traffic.

Choosing Paid Traffic Network

There are literally numerous paid traffic sources on the net. Adwords from Google is the biggest of these networks. It has a huge reach and its conversion is also quite well. On the other hand, the competition is very high and Google has some strict rules in case of paid traffic.

Bing is another traffic option. Its conversion is higher than Adwords and its rules are also not as strict as Adwords. Facebook Ads are also good option in case of broader products which are not suitable for laser targeted traffic like Adwords.

In case of display advertising, Google Content Network and SiteScout are two good options. And another option could be to contact the individual sites and negotiate ad space on their sites.

Optimizing Paid Traffic Campaigns

It is quite rare that you will be able to build a profitable campaign right at the start. Generally you will have to work towards optimizing your campaigns before seeing any noticeable improvements.

Keep tracking your keywords, especially those that are making money and also those that are loss makers, in case of search based traffic. Stop using non converting keywords. And further expand keywords that are performing well.

In case of display ads, cut ads on those sites which are not converting quite well. In case of Facebook Ads as a paid traffic source, review and see which keywords and demographics are converting well. Stay away from anything that is not.

Split testing different ads is a professionals’ strategy to optimize ads which generate more sales and more clicks. You should be optimizing for both. And land pages are also very important, therefore, split test your landing pages too.

Also keep an eye on the trends at different days of the week and different times of the day. Certain times will be giving you higher return on investment than other. Focus your attention and resources on those times that are converting better.

Rinse and repeat this whole process. Keep looking for and testing new ideas, split test these ideas and cut out those ideas which do not produce results. Be consistent and soon you will see a profitable flow of paid traffic.